Movies

Kids, story deserve a little more credit

** 1/2 RATING

To give a hoot as well as be a hoot. Surely, that was the aim of the latest family flick from Walden Media.

While "Hoot" has heart - it's based on Carl Hiaasen's Newbery Medal-honored children's book about three kids trying to protect some cute but shy burrowing owls - subtlety turns out to be endangered.

Debuting with his first feature, TV veteran Wil Shriner goes broad when the movie's two thorniest subjects - the environment and bullying - beg for finesse.

Things begin promisingly enough, though the movie's reliance on young Roy Eberhardt's voice-over intro recalls two better Walden projects: last year's "Because of Winn Dixie" and the even more accomplished "Holes."

Roy (Logan Lerman) sits atop a horse, clearly at home on the wide Montana range. Problem is, his dad (Neil Flynn of "Scrubs"), a Justice Department official, moves Roy and his mom from place to place.

"Six schools in eight years," Roy complains. And when he arrives at the latest stopover, Coconut Cove, Fla., you can't fault his frustration.

Almost immediately he's crushed in a headlock by Trace Middle School bully Dana (Eric Phillips) and given a new moniker, "cowgirl." It sticks. Even soccer maven and independent thinker Beatrice the Bear (Brie Larson) uses the handle.

Thrown up against the school bus window by his nemesis, Roy catches the tantalizing sight of a barefoot wild child he eventually befriends.

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Cody Linley plays Mullet Fingers, a rebel with a cause: saving the nesting owls on a plot earmarked for a Mother Paula's All-American Pancake House. He's also Beatrice's stepbrother, on the lam from their folks.

In bringing perpetual new kid Roy and these two feisty siblings together to fight corporate indifference, the movie celebrates the intriguing, powerful friendships kids make. Kids know this, of course, though it's good for some adults to be reminded.

But there's something uncomfortably rosy about bruiser Dana. Bullying has become rougher these days, and its repercussions headline news. The film's depiction of a thug who lays his hands on other kids and the weird tolerance the adults around exhibit rings false. (The silly punishment the script metes out doesn't help.)

This isn't a call for sourpuss polemics but a request for a tone that honors - with humor - the realities kids face.

One problem with "Hoot" is that nearly all the actors attack their roles with a kind of primetime comedic physicality. Nelson's boneheaded character is all twang and stupidity. Luke Wilson is more hapless than usual as officer Delinko. His captain is just another shouting caricature in a movie that mistakes them for characters.

What Shriner really does to make the film less than it deserved to be is force his young stars to work too hard. Larson resists overacting for the most part, and Beatrice has a kind of weight. But when Linley's character has a serious mishap trying to keep the pancake house from breaking ground, his injuries feel fake.

Realism does not have to triumph over what is essentially a kid comedy. "Holes" managed to hit the pitch-perfect note. But that movie had a seasoned director in Andrew Davis, who trusted the sensibilities of the film's core audience.

Florida is the one character that should have been allowed to gobble up the screen a bit more. When Mullet Fingers takes Roy on a tour of marshes and glades, and reveals the reason for his odd name, you see why co-producers and passionate Floridians Hiaasen and Jimmy Buffett wanted to bring "Hoot" to the screen.

The Sunshine State has mystery and vulnerable beauty to spare - but not to wreck.

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